The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Developer Diary; Screenshots

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By Andrew Burnes

New screenshots of Oblivion and a developer diary that focuses on soundscapes - please, contain your excitement:

If you've played previous Elder Scrolls games, you know very well how rich and detailed the games' outside worlds are. Well, you've truly never seen anything like this. Right from the start I'm presented with a truly amazing landscape of lush forests, rolling highlands, snow capped mountains, lowland swamps, and grassy meadows &#Array; all of which will need my attention in some way. Great sound design means immersion and I can tell right away that a visual masterpiece like this will require a sonic landscape that sucks you right in as powerfully as the visuals. And that's only one aspect - let's not forget clashing swords, the sound of clattering about in a full suit of plate armor, slamming shut city gates as you enter a new town to explore, wading through water along a riverbank, casting a blazing fireball, the crack of thunder in a heavy downpour, gentle chirping of crickets at night, and on and on.

With only a year to go until the completion of this truly massive and detailed game, I needed to hit the ground running immediately upon arriving for my first day of work: meeting the rest of the team, familiarizing myself with the game as it currently stood, talking with producers and getting an idea of what needed to be done, what was already done, and generally just where to start when faced with such a beast. Thankfully, our friends at sound design house d-Sonic had already gotten the ball rolling by filling out a few areas of the game's audio assets, so I took the reigns from there and started out on what was to become a long and amazing journey as part of the Oblivion team.